1947-1968

The Civil Rights Movement

April 1947

Jackie Robinson breaks the color line in major league baseball.

October 29, 1947

To Secure These Rights, the report by the President’s Committee on Civil Rights is released. The committee calls for the elimination of segregation.

July 26, 1948

President Harry S Truman issues an executive order desegregating the armed forces.

May 17, 1954

In Brown v. Board of Education the Supreme Court declares separate facilities “inherently unequal.”

December 1, 1955

Rosa Parks is arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white person; the action triggers a bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, led by Martin Luther King, Jr.

January 11, 1957

MLK, Jr. and a number of southern black clergymen create the Southern Christian Leadership Conference or SCLC.

September 4, 1957

On the orders of Arkansas governor Orval Faubus, Arkansas National Guardsmen block 9 black students from entering Central High School.

1959-1960

Sit-in campaigns by college students in St. Louis, Chicago, Bloomington, ID, and Nashville help to desegregate eating facilities.

Feb. 1, 1960: Woolworth’s lunch counter

April 1960

The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) is formed in Raleigh, NC.

Stokely Carmichael

Ella Baker

May 1962

James Meredith files suit claiming racial discrimination after being denied admission to the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss).

November 20, 1962

President Kennedy signs an executive order barring racial discrimination in federally funded housing.

1963

Click icon to add pictureBirmingham police chief Eugene “Bull” Connor turns police dogs and fire hoses against nonviolent demonstrators.

King composes his Letter from Birmingham City Jail.

June 11, 1963: Radio and TV address on Civil Rights

“I hope that every American, regardless of where he lives, will stop and examine his conscience about this and other related incidents. This Nation was founded by men of many nations and backgrounds. It was rounded on the principle that all men are created equal, and that the rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.”

August 28, 1963

Click icon to add pictureOver 250,000 Americans gather at the Lincoln Memorial to urge the passage of civil rights legislation and hear MLK, Jr. deliver his “I have a dream speech.” Malcolm X dismisses the march as “the Farce on Washington.”

“Freedom Summer” 1964

Click icon to add pictureSNCC and CORE work to register thousands of black voters.

Three civil rights works Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Chaney are murdered near Philadelphia, Mississippi.

1964

Click icon to add picturePresident Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which prohibits discrimination in most public accommodations.

MLK, Jr. is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

February 21, 1965

Malcolm X is assassinated while addressing a rally of his followers in NYC. Three black men are ultimately convicted of his murder.

March 7, 1965

“Bloody Sunday”

600 marchers outside Selma, Alabama are attacked by state troopers with nightsticks and tear gas.

August 6, 1965

President Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act of 1965 which outlaws literacy tests and empowers the Justice Department to supervise federal elections in seven southern states.

August 11-16, 1965

Rioting in the black ghetto of Watts in Los Angeles leads to 35 deaths, 900 injuries, and over 3,500 arrests.

SNCC 1966

Stokely Carmichael replaces John Lewis as chairman of SNCC.

SNCC votes to exclude whites from membership

John Lewis

H. Rap Brown

June 6, 1966

James Meredith is shot by a sniper while on a one-man “march against fear” in Mississippi

October 1966

The Black Panther Party (BPP) is founded in Oakland California.

May 10-11, 1967

Rioting at all black Jackson State College in Mississippi leads to one death and two serious injuries.

Newark: July 1967

Rioting in the black ghetto of Newark, NJ leaves 23 dead and 725 injured.

The Kerner Commission

February 29, 1968Warns that the nation is “moving toward two

societies, one black, one white—separate and unequal”

White racism is responsibleJobs, education, housing barriers still

remainedPolice brutality an issue for many

April 4, 1968

Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated by James Earl Ray in Memphis, Tennessee, precipitating riots in more than 100 cities.